Separate Is Never Equal

 

Title: Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation

Author: Duncan Tonatiuh 

Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh 

Grade Level: 3rd-5th 

Genre: Nonfiction 

Link to purchase: https://a.co/d/enjkMw2 

Link to teacher resource: https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/separate-never-equal-literature-guide 

https://teacherresourceroom.com/shop/shop-separate-never-equal-unit/

Social Justice Element 

Summary: 

This book talks about the story of Sylvia Mendez and her family fighting against separating people by race, religion, etc in the state of California. In 1940s schools were separated because of race and religion. As seen in the book white children would attended rich school while on the other hand Mexican children were pushed away to poor schools. Sylvia and her brothers try to enroll in a “whites only” school and they were turned always and told to sign up in a Mexican school where all of the other children go. This is when the Mendez family with other families decided to take some legal actions. They filed a lawsuit arguing that separation people just because of their skin color or race is going against something that was stated in the Constitution and harmful to the education of many Mexican American children's. During the time of the trial the teachers and experts gave proof about the harmful effects of separating kids on students self confidence and learning challenging due to the lack of education. The judge ended up in favor with the Mendez family declaring that separating these kids based on their family and cultural characteristics is illegal in California. This is a big important case for many schools because they can’t separate these kids anymore. This book showcases the courage and strong desire decision about something of the Mendez family and their community in fighting for equal rights and justice. 

Connects to Element: 

This books talks about a story how a community of kids don’t have the same opportunity as a white child does. Latin families have to fight for justice for their kids to have a better education. The struggle for equality in education during the desegregation is seen in this book and how the unequal treatment is showed. It shows the battle and victory within this family of social justice, they fought for what they believe and for justice for all the opportunities of the kids regardless of the background. 

Classroom use:

This books could have any activities, many do something with some vocabulary words. It could also be used for a research paper, to look into more about social justice in different states or schools. It could also be used for a reflection paper, answer to the question of what equal education means. Many questions could be asked within this book such as, what does it mean to fight for justice, what is segregation, what are petitions, why did the school reject these students, what risks were taken, have you ever felt excluded?